Something is brewing
Here in my little corner of suburban America businesses are folding and closing up shop in an ever-increasing rate and the retail landscape is beginning to look like a moonscape.
The recent announcement that Subway was thinning their Washington state footprint has meant no more Vancouver stores and Oregon stores are few and far between.
It wasn't my favorite sandwich shop but I frequented them several times a year looking for convenience and a fast to go meal for events, picnics, or a day on the river.
It's an ominous trend being repeated all across the nation.
In the recent past, Rite Aids have been closing down as well as their nemesis Walgreens and CVS.
These drug outlets used to dot the landscape like sponges soaking up every last available consumer prescription dollar, often stores across the street from one another.
Chain restaurants like Olive Garden and Sheri's are thinning their ranks.
The retail store environment is slowly shrinking along with other businesses that used to fill our main streets and corner strip malls.
Five years ago I would wonder how these stores could compete with one another in such a saturated market, even with their own stores just blocks away.
Something austere comes this way.
I think the consumer is running out of money.
How is your little slice of America faring?
Thread is open.
Comments
Good morning, e1, et al!
What began in 2021 with the pandemic lockdowns is, indeed, accelerating.
7-Eleven, Steak and Ale, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Dollar Tree, etc...
It is "normal" to drive through historic Texas towns and see every downtown square store front boarded up. Hotels for sale everywhere. I think I read that Walmart is thinning out.
In my own hometown, there is only several blocks of storefronts, and suddenly, 4 resale shops pop up.
The nearest mall was bustling with 3 apparel stores and a drs.' office. It closed completely for 6 months, now it is a U-Haul center.
What is booming is the homeless population.
We are sliding into enormous abject poverty, except Wall Street, of course.
I am curious to see if Trump has a plan, or if he pulls a Biden.
Thanks for OT, and hunker down, get ready for something awful to come our way, friend.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I'm all hunkered down
Sticking my head up (every Tuesday) and lookin' around, sniffin' the air to see what's coming.
Thanks for your report from your neck of the woods.
Entire malls are closing up and down the "left" coast. And how the DOW continues to grow is very suspicious.
I have as little investment in the stock market that I can with the little control I have with my 401.
I refuse to do any business with banks, especially TBTF ones.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
I wonder if Trump can even recognize...
there's a problem. Meaning, maybe his class, upbringing and inexperience in living any other but the richest life has made him blind?
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Trump's actual priorities:
Eating junk food, playing golf, watching himself play out his strongman fantasies on TV, calling people up and blabbing with them...
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-leaked-schedule-executive-time-workday-la...
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser
Most super rich
men I have know in my life like to brag about how much fun it is to know a poor person, and how funny it is to buy them something, like a sack of dog food. One super rich man I was friends with for years had a blast when he took his fiance' to Walmart and bought her the wedding ring. They laughed about it for years, and she would show it to their friends at the country club in the River Oaks, Houston area, the most expensive area in the city, and likely the state of Texas. (Our Governor is from River Oaks edition.)
Trump maybe has some caddies and gold course groundskeepers with whom he has made a token "poor" buddy.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Shopping center just re-opened two weeks ago here in Dresden,
having been torn down and rebuilt from the ground up.
Went to the grand opening. Subway was asking 12 euro for a foot-long. I passed.
Yeah
Sheri's is a regional restaurant chain that started closing underperformed and the closest one to me was leveled and is being replaced with a strip mall.
Small owner operated businesses and boutiques are hanging in there. It's the corporate chains that are going bye bye.
Thanks for the news from over there.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Heh. My little slice of the USA!USA!USA! is arguably
something of a cross between a bedroom community and an old folks' home. There seems to have been a sufficient influx of those with kids or able to do so to keep the growth rate positive, but us elds are everywhere, in part because it takes so many of them so long to get anywhere.
We have fast food and what I call quick food, grocery stores, CVS and Walgreens, no industry, realtors and insurance agencies up wazoo, some gourmet shops, TJ Maxx and Ross, a car parts store, gas stations and vehicle repair, beauty and hair salons, a hospital, lots of dentists, and banks. Thass it, except for a UPS store and one or more "mailboxes R us" type stores. Amazon, FedEx and UPS trucks roam our streets like cabs in a film noir 40s metropolis. What it betokens or foretells I cannot say. Most non-retired residents work elsewhere and most goods and services are also elsewhere. We have a BART station and multiple highway on and off ramps. At distances of rougly 3, 5, and 10 miles in multiple directions there are rings of things like home depot, costco, walmart, staples, office depot, best buy, 2 semi-healthy malls and 2 dying ones.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Actually, should be at least 3 dying malls, they are
everywhere once I stop to think about it.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Those big box stores
located in county vs city property to avoid taxes probably. That how it works around here.
I live on the "old" side of the river in Washington State where there is no state personal income tax. Lotsa old retirees.
Was solid Red, now Purple, morphing to Blue.
Housing prices skyrocketing. Mine has tripled in 20 years, as have the property taxes.
I would love to pay a state income tax in lieu of property tax, but the state revenuers are to smart for that.
Thanks for the small town info.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
I think, around here, for whatever reasons, the big boxes
are at least largely on city property, probably because no county open space was available. Dunno how much it would save anyhow around here, I suspect that the cities involved negotiated some breaks to get them to locate there, they're mostly smallish cities, San Leandro, Hayward, Dublin, San Ramon, Livermore, and like that, as opposed to, say San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and like that.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Locating big box stores
and large distribution complexes (Amazon, Fed Ex, Walmart, etc.) are a bargaining process.
Big money has the leverage to get just what they want by pitting counties vs cities against each other.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Damn good description...
very good. I think I live there too.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
It is going
to get much, much worse before it gets better.
And that may have to be footnoted with "for proper definitions of the word 'better'."
I drive past acres of empty commercial real estate on my way to my job here. Every day, more restaurants and franchised businesses close up shop- and even some of the unique businesses that are driven by dedicated, passionate entrepreneurs rather than get-rich-with-less-effort franchisees are going south.
The entire concept of "disposable income" is being deprecated, with each turn of the printing press that pukes out the faux-money to pay for our wars. And the world is awakening to the fact that we no longer have the means to enforce our penchant for bullying. This will continue until we all get to experience the Hemingway scene from "The Sun Also Rises", wherein the bankrupt character described how he became bankrupt:
"Gradually, then suddenly".
Whether or not it involves war in my front yard, I'm not looking forward to it.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Absolutely concurr
Gradually, then suddenly.
Proles are too busy surviving to be afraid.
Let's hope it is a mostly peaceful collapse.
Thanks for stopping by
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
One of the reasons
I'm so keen on the restaurant scene is the peculiar local growth of food courts dotting the downtown and suburban communities.
I'm not sure if it a national phenomenon or just regional, resulting from the numerous culinary schools in the Portland/Vancouver metro area.
I can see it as a test bed for graduates seeking to hone their skills and experiment with new ideas and dishes.
For those who may not know, food courts are kind of like RV parks of small mobile trailers set up as kitchens, much like lunch trucks making the rounds at construction sites. Only gathered together in rented parking lots or other empty spaces and originally catering to lunch crowds but now serving specialty food preparations all day and into the night.
I can understand how the chain restaurants are having a hard time competing with them, let alone other national chain stores.
The food courts seem to be flourishing and expanding.
And many serve amazing food.
As far as the drug store closings, I have no idea except marketing exuberance in an environment of extreme competition.
They used to fight it out with hostile takeovers.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
foot courts thriving in my area
And many individual carts are now signed up with food delivery services like Door Dash. I can tell areas which are doing well by the infusion of local restaurants, or national chains like Target.
He said he did….
His tweet got 81k likes.
Shitlibs said that the people on the right were going to start the next civil war….
I just find this sad.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
If you can read the thread
It was democrats who wanted to abolish the 1st Amendment, expand the Supreme Court and stack it in their favor and get rid of the electoral college. How will they deal with this much anger over time? Will it just eat at them and ruin their lives?
Sad that people get so wrapped up in politicians who don’t give a rat’s ass about any of us. Kamala rolled out celebrities like their opinion on her should get people to vote for her and not on her merits.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Those dems sound like thet were Stasi brainwashed
The East German system in Cold War days taught and encouraged people to turn in their own mothers and fathers. Same during China's Cultural Revolution.
Kinda reminded me
of TOP and the Great Orange Satan.
Nailed it
That’s where I found the story. But someone there suggested doing it first a few days ago and then there was an echo chamber of #me too.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Hypocrisy is a lost concept
with these people.
Do they not realize their blowhardish, bullying remarks sound just like Trump?
Thanks for the post.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Exactly
Remember when orange state used to write about how mean red state was and how they thought they were above them and accepting of all?
Now orange state has turned into the mean girls state and this happened during Trump’s first term. And it’s just gotten worse since.
I blame the media for a lot of it. It started during his 1st term when they lied about what he said and then they continued it for the last 4 years when he was out of office. Didn’t they say that they were glad he was done so they didn’t have to talk about him anymore? Then they still did. Doh!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I agree it's gotten worse
since his first term. But this crap has been going on for years now, since the hijacking of the Democrat Party name by Bill Clinton and his ilk, and filled with fascists and NWO type trash.
The Democrat Party is nothing like it was in JFK days. More and more oldtime Democrats are waking up to this crime, as evidenced by two serial catastrophic losses in three elections.
The third one largely questionable.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Speaking of blowhardish
Rebecca Solnit weighs in on the election:
Our mistake was to think we lived in a better country than we do
Love the subtitle:
Sorry, Ms. Solnit, but last I checked, Antony Blinken and Joe Biden weren't women, and if you would like to observe some messes, please visit Ukraine and Gaza on your next book tour. I hear Ukraine is lovely in the winter.
The text is also enlightening:
Here one remembers that the swing voters who elected Trump were in many cases the same ones who voted for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, so, yeah. Racism and misogyny.
As for "supremely qualified," Ms. Solnit, please enlighten us as to what-exactly Ms. Harris DID to become "supremely qualified"? Besides being a crappy DA?
These weren't the problems of the swing voters, which were: inflation, Gaza, Ukraine, and the Biden administration's obsession with budget-cutting post-pandemic.
Oh, I would say that the media did just fine on these metrics -- but, rather, it's that "the economy is thriving" only if you don't use statistics that look at how little of the surplus is actually going to those who produce it.
I presume that the agenda-setting did not include the one debate held between Trump and Harris, which was moderated by one of Harris' sorority sisters?
AIPAC practically owns Congress and a lot of the sanctions were set up under Trump, but Russia or something.
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser
Funny isn’t it….
…that Democrats don’t ask themselves why they lost voters that went to Obama, but now go to Trump. I still think that Obama was the most responsible for Trump’s win.
I watched Sachs on the judge show today and I can’t believe how much Biden’s presidency has damaged so many countries. Especially Germany when he blew up their cheap source of natural gas and tanked their economy.
Obama: "Never underestimate Biden’s ability to fck things up."
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
She can not possibly believe
.
that vomit she spewed forth. Clearly, she is a paid troll rewriting the material given her.
Whomever it is writing this crap for her is lazily inverting actual reality and committing a kind of left-handed plagiarism.
Really....how hard is it to write up is down, in is out, black is white, ad infinitum?
Even a schoolgirl on the little bus can do this.
I. Am. Not. Impressed.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
We are probably not representative of US in general
But there is little change occurring. One grocery, one bank
two churches and one package store, a couple eateries
(think sloppy joes or pizza) and beaucoup realtors. The
demographics are aging-out with few young folks able to
afford living here. School is shrinking but farmers are doing
quite well.
Good luck and thanks for the OT.
question everything
Sounds like the small town
near my farm parcel.
Great people, everybody waves as we drive by.
Lotsa little community events. Welcoming to visitors.
Would live there if not for the family ties here in Vancouver.
But it is my bug-out hide-a-way for SHTF.
Thanks for joining in today.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Trump creating a war cabinet?
Given what the media is describing as Trumps recent announcements for executive positions they all look to be belligerent chickenhawk warmongers. I check in on Michael Tracey's Twitter feed and he has been showing Trump's past actions and he is not the anti-war, anti-establishment president his supporters pimp him out to be. Twice now Trump has been blessed horrid opposition dem choices.
https://x.com/mtracey
While I understand the use of braggadocio statements, Trump and others do not understand it is all political theatre and not to be taken seriously. These warmongers believe that the threats of violence and mayhem will make Iran, Russia, China, North Koreas cower in the presence of such magnificence and nobility. Heck even goes down to NATO trainers working with Ukrainians who told them as soon as the Russians soldiers saw the superior trained NATO Ukrs the Russian soldiers would drop their guns and run back to Russian (during the counter offensive). Instead the Russians began a slow motion slaughter of the Ukrs.
Trump has always
had an inflated ego (comes with multi-million dollar inheritances), but learnd his kayfafe style with his involvement with the WWE and rubbing shoulders(?) with wrestling stars.
The name calling, the epitaphs, the labeling of opponents is strait out of the wrestling ring.
And just as phoney.
Thanks for stopping by.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Irony
Yes, I was definitely put off by Trump labelling his opponents a Russia-controlled "traitor," "Hitler" and "Nazi" and calling their supporters "deplorable" and "garbage."
Then there was
Crooked Hillary
Little Marcus Rubio
Slow Joe
I realize it went both ways. But Trump had a dig for everyone of his opponents and everything he described was in grandiose terms like threatening N. Korean leader with "fire and destruction the Earth has never seen".
Verbiage straight out of WWE.
Those crowds go apeshit over "trash talk" like that. Showmanship writ large.
Trump knows the right buttons to push with each audience, much like Ronald Reagan, another showman.
The art of conveying a personality that is not the real you is a gift. The best of them get their names and handprint on a sidewalk in Hollywood.
Thanks for posting your viewpoint.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Irony
I'm not sure "Little Marco," "Crooked Hillary" and "Slow Joe" are equivalent to "Hitler," "Traitor," and "Garbage (directed at citizens)," but you do you, earthling. I live in Seattle, btw, and I was a Bernie delegate. I am more optimistic about positive change than I have been in 25 years. It will get rough, though.
We will only get a change president
once America becomes a failed state and NATO has been disbanded. And I think that time is closer than what our parasite class wants to admit. Until then no one person will be able to turn the course of the AMERICAN TITANIC. America has already hit the iceberg…it’s slowly taking on water.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
It has struck
the iceberg, yes. But the body of the iceberg is still jammed into the hole in the hull.
We may be taking on some water now. But when that iceberg pulls out of the hole, watch out.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
The American people
need to start planning now to seize the reins of power before the "continuity of goverment" crowd snatch it from us.
By passing that law state by state, proves they are anticipating a major collapse.
We need to plan ahead of them and repeal those laws and restore our personal freedoms and liberties
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
New Housing
I live in a rural area between two small towns. A builder has bought up 60+ acres and was approved to build around 700 houses. There would not be the McMansion type house but instead your average 2- or 3-bedroom homes. Today he's going in from of the County Commission to raise that up to around 2500 homes.
I can't imagine where all these people are going to work. There are not that many jobs in this area. There is not enough infrastructure for this many houses. This land is located near the truck stop and industrial park. Are they planning on putting in an Amazon or Walmart warehouse down there. There's something going on but who knows what it is.
The commission should be asking
those exact questions.
You should be there to witness what he gives as answers.
If those commissioners don't ask, suspect graft.
If there is a large audience and he Commissioners postpone the hearing, it probably is graft.
If they close the chambers to public viewing, it definitely is graft.
Good luck.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Probably graft
The Commission meetings are put online the next day. I know that a lot of people were planning on going. The parcel is off on Hwy 90 which runs parallel to I-10 across the state. It's so bad now that there is an accident almost every week in this area, add in another 2500 vehicles, it's going to be a real mess.
This is what they’re building in Ogden
Anywhere there’s enough land one of these butt ugly apartment buildings goes up. This is on one of the 4 heavy traveled roads in the city.
Look at how close to the road it is and there’s nothing green in sight. I should try counting how many of these there are now. I just feel bad for young people who can’t afford to buy a home. And the new ones that are built are huger, ugly and have very few windows and little yards. Not very affordable.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Those apartments are Awful
There are several places near here where the houses literally have no yards. Just a strip of green. Why would anybody want to move to the "country" and live in a subdivision like that. At least in town, there are places to shop and even a small county bus service. Out here the big advantage was that you are not living on top of each other. They are also attempting to restrict how many places you can put on your property. Because rent is so high, many people are letting relatives, put either a small mobile home or a camping trailer on their property to save money. Most of the places in my neighborhood are 4 acres or more, so even with 2 or 3 places, you have some room to move.
Something is brewing, all right
and I don't like the looks of it. There is one (1) mega chain grocery in this burg, and they've been almost to completely out of milk (just milk!) for days. (Got lucky with other grocery items which apparently weren't in such hyper-demand/disastrously short supply.)
Haven't seen it like this since the worst of COVID.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
They probably
had to make room for toilet paper.
One can make do with powdered/condensed milk.
Sorry, just trying to be funny. Probably a supply chain glitch but hopefully the recent bovine pandemic with bird flu wasn't involved.
Thanks for stopping by.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
A tale of two Wehos
In West Hollywood, the signs are mixed -- a huge number of empty storefronts along Santa Monica and Melrose Blvds. Two legal marijuana shops have opened and closed within a few weeks in one case and a few months in the other. The cops have rousted just about all the folks who were sleeping on the sidewalks. I witnessed a couple of the police actions as they patiently goaded the street dwellers into moving on. To where? Who knows?
Meanwhile, major construction of retail properties is accelerating, including two huge lots at major intersections that have been fenced off for the last few years. Several retail properties in my neighborhood are also being refurbished under new names.
It appears that there is a lack of customers with spendable cash coupled with a surplus of available credit. Intentional economic suicide
If this thing brewing is not intentional (as I believe it is), then we are bring led by morons.
The galloping inflation of the last four years is the inevitable result of the covid lockdown and mandatory cessation of huge amounts of productive activity coupled with the unbalanced "stimulus" measures that delivered huge amounts of fiat money, much of which went into the financial markets.
During the farcical Presidential campaign, both parties offered bogus explanations for the inflation. Team Trump simply repeated the GOP mantra of the last century -- rising prices are caused by "reckless spending" by "liberals" in power. Harris offered to take action against "price gouging" by Big Business.
The tacit agreement to avoid rehashing covid tells the story, as far as I am concerned. The pretend war between the Dems and the GOP is staged to keep any opposition to the permanent government from having a single target.
This continues to work like a dream for the moneybags.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
much to agree with there
.
.
as the polly titans like to say
don't blame me
your enemy is yonder
question everything